Sunday, 14 February, 2010
 | Skills - Another Labour let down |
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At the beginning of this month the Higher Education Funding Council for England, the quango responsible for distributing Government funds to universities and colleges, confirmed that funding for 2010-11 will be £449m lower than announced previously.
This means that teaching budgets are being cut by 1.6% in real terms compared to 2009-10 levels, research funding is being frozen, and the capital budget for new buildings is being cut by 15%. The latest cuts follow others announced in December’s Pre Budget Report, and mean that the higher education sector is set to see its budget fall by a total of around £1bn over the next three years.
With more than a million young people not in any kind of work or training, we need to create more opportunities, not less. That’s why Conservatives have pledged to provide an extra 10,000 university places this summer, paid for by a discount for early repayment of student loans.
To help young people not following traditional academic routes, we will also redirect £775m from the Government’s wasteful and inefficient ‘Train to Gain’ to create 100,000 new additional apprenticeships and training places, and to fully fund the 77,000 adult apprentices which are currently only part-funded.
Conservatives will also ensure that all apprenticeships are work-focused by making it easier for companies to run apprenticeships, and give a £2,000 bonus to each small firm creating a new apprenticeship.
Richard
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